- A new study found that older adults who maintained good sleep quality over a five-year period had a lower risk of heart disease.ASE,
- However, people with good sleep quality at only one point in the study had lower cardiovascular risk than those with consistently poor sleep quality.
- Studies have focused on poor sleep quality, but sleep disorders like sleep apnea may also increase heart disease risk.
Sleep and health are closely related to poor sleep
While research shows the importance of high-quality sleep, few studies have looked at people’s sleep patterns at one point in time. But sleep habits can change over the course of a person’s life, so a single measurement may not always show the full picture of someone’s health over their lifetime.
To gain a better understanding of how changes in sleep patterns Because of the health implications, researchers in China examined people’s sleep patterns at two different time points, several years apart.
Like earlier research, they found that higher quality sleep is linked to better health — in this case, a lower risk of coronary heart disease And trauma. These benefits were greatest for those who slept well at the beginning and end of the study.
However, even people who had high-quality sleep only once in a while were seen to have a lower risk of heart disease than those with consistently poor sleep quality.
The new study was published April 23
The study involved more than 15,000 retired workers in China who completed questionnaires and had medical examinations at intervals of about five years. Researchers collected genetic data from some people, which was used to determine their cardiovascular risk.
People who already had heart disease or cancer at the beginning of the study were excluded from the study.
Researchers used questionnaires to determine the quality of people’s sleep. “Optimum” sleep was based on four factors: bedtime between 10 p.m. and midnight, 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night, good or fair sleep quality, and Blink 60 minutes or less during the day.
The researchers found that people with “favorable” sleep patterns at any time were less likely to have a cardiovascular disease event (coronary heart disease or stroke) than people with poor sleep patterns at both times.
Even people who had good sleep initially and poor sleep later in the visit had lower cardiovascular risk than people who had consistently poor sleep.
However, those who reported high sleep quality (consistent favorable sleep) at both time points had the lowest cardiovascular risk. This included a 16% lower risk of coronary heart disease and a 34% lower risk of stroke.
When the researchers took into account the influence of people’s genes, they found that people who had a low genetic risk of heart disease and had favorable sleep patterns at both time points had the lowest cardiovascular risk.
The group with the lowest risk had a 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease and a 52% lower risk of stroke, compared with people with high genetic risk and frequent poor sleep.
However, the findings showed that people with intermediate or high genetic risk for heart disease also benefit from good sleep quality, with the group with good sleep quality having a 64% lower risk.
Therefore, “regardless of the presence of genetic factors associated with heart disease, good sleep quality reduced people’s risk of developing heart disease,” it said. Cheng-Han Chen, MDInterventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California.
The results of the new study are similar to earlier research, which used survey data to assess people’s sleep quality, he said. Safia S. Khan, MDAn expert in sleep disorders and an associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
However, he told Healthline that the new study is the first to look at changes in sleep patterns and heart disease risk over time.
in the other Study Which assessed sleep quality at two points in time, researchers followed middle-aged European participants for nine years. They found lower cardiovascular risk for people with high-quality sleep patterns and those who improved their sleep habits over time.
These results are similar to the findings of this latest study.
Earlier studies have also shown that many people’s sleep patterns change constantly, with only 19% of participants changing their sleep patterns during the study.
“For middle-aged people and retirees, there’s not going to be much change in their sleep patterns from year to year,” Khan said. “So essentially, we can assume that these people [in the new study] My sleep pattern was the same before the survey was conducted.
This means the study results are a good indication of the association between cardiovascular outcomes and sleep patterns, he said.
Another unique aspect of the study is that it focused on retired older adults, who may have more natural sleep patterns than middle-aged people, who often adjust their sleep habits to fit their work schedules. Yes, the authors wrote.
Although this study matches previous research, it has some limitations.
For example, because the participants were all older adults in China, the results may not apply to younger people or people with different racial or ethnic backgrounds.
So “we need to do more studies from other regions of the world,” Khan said, “to see if these results can be replicated in those other regions.”
Plus, this was an observational study, meaning “it doesn’t necessarily show that poor sleep quality causes cardiovascular conditions,” Chen told Healthline, only that there is an association between the two.
“It may be that there are other factors, such as depression or stress, that lead to both poor sleep quality and heart disease,” he said.
The researchers did not take all these other factors into account.
For example, “they did not take into account other aspects of sleep quality that we consider very important,” Chen said, “in particular, sleep disorders like sleep apnea, which is a risk factor for heart disease. “
Khan agreed.
“We don’t know how many people had sleep apnea, insomnia, restless legs or other sleep problems,” he said. “Or if their spouses have severe sleep apnea or snoring problems that can be distressing [people’s] Sleep.”
Although Khan thinks future studies should take these other factors into account, he said we already know that sleep quality is an important aspect of heart health.
The American Heart Association also includes getting healthy sleep
“Whenever I talk to my patients about heart health and improving their cardiovascular risk factors, I always mention the idea of sleep quality and I am sleeping wellAlso asked if they had been checked for sleep apnea,” Chen said.
In a study of more than 15,000 retirees, researchers found that those who maintained good sleep quality over a five-year period had the lowest risk of heart disease, especially coronary heart disease and stroke.
However, people who got good quality sleep at only one point in the study had a lower risk of heart disease than people who had poor sleep throughout the study.
The study relied on questionnaires to assess people’s sleep quality, which may not be accurate. Additionally, the researchers did not assess other factors that may affect heart disease risk, such as sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and depression.
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